Legacy Secrets
by Cosmo NovaHill
Summary: Aaron has just saved Marta from her house and learned that he could be viraled off all chems. He has one small problem. He has no chems left. Marta knows where he can get some chems, but its a dark secret that the government has no idea exists. What is this secret? Will he be okay with what he learns? -R&R-
1. Chapter 1

**Note-some dates and time lines might not add up to the film such as the time between Cross joining operation outcome and the present, it says Kenneth J. Kitsom died 2003, so in this story it was 1996 in order to get the timings right... This starts part way through the film as I don't really want to try and re-tell the bulk of it, so this started in the same way as the film. We join at the point Cross and Shearing are driving along when Aaron is yelling at her to get out of the car if she has a better plan... Enjoy! R&R**

The car had pulled to an abrupt stop. Aaron's mind was now racing. Manila, the Philippines. That was a long way to go, but he would have to make this journey and take Shearing with him in order to be viraled off the blue chems. He held his head in his hands. He had no chems left. He couldn't get to the Philippines without chems. From around the side of the car Shearing appeared.

"I think I can get you some blues. Not much, but some. We need to drive." She gestured to the car. "Come on. I'll explain." She was tugging the door handle and swinging inside as she spoke. For a second Aaron just looked at the car. Manila. Quickly he got back into the car, he didn't want Marta to change her mind about helping him. She gave him a few instructions on where they were headed. Then paused for a second.

"So? Where are we going to get chems? All other outcome agents were killed?" He looked across at her.

"I told you you were 5 of 8. That isn't necessarily true. You are 5 of 9." She looked at him now, her eyes quickly darting back to the road. "When I joined the team of researchers there was a big 'move' going on. Only a few knew about it. Sally was the woman I was replacing. She was practically thrown out because she was to old to carry on. She told me all of... Everything." Agin she paused. "When you joined, there was a big idea. They took three surrogate mothers, made fake family's wanting them to carry children for them. The embryo's implanted were made from random combinations of outcome agents." Aaron nearly crashed the car.

"They made a child? That had to go through... All of this?" He shook his head as he regained control of the car. Marta nodded.

"One didn't get any results. The other two had multiple successes. Unfortunately one mother and the babies were killed in a freak car crash. The other carried one baby to full term. She gave birth to a healthy baby. The mother was never associated with the child again. The baby never has never had a birth certificate, and not really a name. She was given a fake passport, as soon as they could she was taken to England. They raised her in the English lab."  
"So this baby was smuggled to England? Was she terminated? How long ago was this?" Aaron missed the turning, swearing slightly under his breath.

"As I was saying, she was raised over there. They found that whatever chems the parents had been taking, she got the effects but on a much smaller scale. When she was 6 they started giving her chems. After..." Aaron cut off her sentence.

"What was she on?" After a second he got a reply.

"All of them." For a minute they looked at each other, the car coming to a full stop in the road.

"All of them?" He repeated.

"Not at the same time. When she was 8 the English lab got shut down. All the doctors were... they were all killed. One of the doctors from our branch went out there as soon as they could. They found her and bought her back. She was already viraled off the greens."

"They viraled her off at, at what 7 years old? It nearly killed me, what about her?" He was nearly yelling, his voice getting louder.

"Aaron. They bought her over here, she lived in the lab un till she was 12. They then moved her out to a house tucked away that isn't on any map. Sally, the woman I replaced? She lived with the girl, un till they decided that Sally was a liability. The government don't know about nine. She's a secret. Completely unknown. Apart from a select few in the lab. She's been viraled off every chem. They didn't bother with any placebo drugs, I don't think. But she might still have some of the blues. They were the last they viraled her off of. Nine could be valuable." Aaron didn't reply to her.

They drove in silence apart from the times Marta gave instructions. They pulled into a forest road, bumping along. They carried on along the road un till a house came into view.

"Remember, Nine's been viraled off everything. She smart, strong, flexible all of it." Marta turned to him, she had to tell him. He had to know before going in there.

"So whats her real name?" He said reaching for the door handle.

"Stop." Marta grabbed his arm. He turned in his seat to face her. "Her name is Nine. She doesn't have another name." Aaron stared at her, turning back to the door, but once again Marta grabbed his arm. "Aaron, we had to do a DNA test on her when she was born. We had to know what enhancements to expect from her." In an instant he the realisation hit him. Marta let out a loud sigh. "She's your daughter. DNA proved it." Aaron shook his head. He couldn't have a child. "It was repeated multiple times. There's no doubt about it." He carried on shaking his head.

"How old is she now? How old?" He had to repeat because Marta was looking ashamed, zoned out from reality.

"umm, She's 16 now." Aaron smacked the wheel.

"damn it..." He had such mixed emotions at this point. They had created a child, from him, and not told him? "Does she know?"

"She knows the number. She knows her father was 5 of 8. Thats it." She looked at the house. "We'd better get going, she'll get suspicious otherwise." She looked at Aaron, taking his hand and squeezing it slightly.

Marta gently knocked on the door. She heard a slight movement on the other side.

"Nine? Its Dr Shearing? It's Marta."

"You're supposed to be dead." A voice said from no where as the door opened. Marta stepped through the door, followed by Aaron.

"Who are you." A voice said again from a more obvious point now, as there was a gun pointed at Aaron's head. There was a girl stood her arm outstretched with the gun in her hand. Marta quickly put a hand on the top of the gun.

"This is Aaron Cross. He's not here to kill you. Or hurt you."

"Aaron Cross?" She looked at Marta. "Outcome?" Marta looked at the floor. Then at Aaron, finally looking at Nine.

"Operation Outcome. 5." Nine lowered the gun.

"He know?" Marta nodded. "Okay then." Aaron noted the English accent. She holstered the gun, heading down the hallway to the kitchen. "Coming?" She asked turing her head.

In the kitchen Aaron could see her properly. She had short hair cut into a kind of bob. It was dark like his, messy and unruly. She was slim, with a rounded face. Her eyes were all green, unlike his blue eyes with a small amount of green in each. She was calm, very sure of her actions. Her and Marta began having a conversation about chems or something along those lines but to him it sounded like it was in a foreign language. It finally returned to something he could understand.

"Blues? Probably. You'll have to look though Dr Shearing. All the chems are upstairs, in the bathroom. There's a cupboard behind the door. It has all the chems I still have." Marta nodded leaving the room. Nine pulled herself up onto the side, crossing her legs beneath her. She sat taking this man in. The man that was supposed to be her Dad. She couldn't even remember the name Dr Shearing had said. They both realised they were staring at each other at the same point, neither knowing what to say. Marta's voice floated down the stairs.

"Nine, how do you keep this place so clean?" She smiled to herself. Aaron looked away for a moment.

"Don't you mind not having a name?" Aaron asked, absentmindedly. "I mean, thats just your outcome number. Didn't you ever want to be called, I don't know... Jenny?" He looked over at her. She was still smiling.

"Would you have called me that? If you knew about me? Would I be Jenny?" Aaron instantly decided he liked her smile.

"I don't know. I never thought of having any kids. I wouldn't know what to name them..." He trailed off.

"I think of Nine as being an unusual name. Like being called November, or Wednesday." Marta came back in.

"Aaron, I found some blues. Only enough for a day. Maybe 2 if you ration." Marta quickly realised she had walked in on a moment she shouldn't have. She passed the chems to Aaron.

"Is that your real name? The one you were born with?" Aaron looked at her, his mind swimming with memories.

"No. I had another name, many years ago." Nine opened her mouth to ask what it was, but decided against it. "Where are you heading?" She looked hopefully up.

"Manila. I need to be viraled off." He looked down at the few chems.

"Well then. You'll be needing a little extra help?" Nine grinned, jumping down off the side, landing gracefully.


	2. The hotel

Marta stood in the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror. They had travelled to a hotel before flying out to Manila. She had a horrible sick feeling in her stomach. Aaron had just shown her his memorial page from his army days. 'Kenneth J. Kitsom' it had said. He had lead another life before this. There was a family somewhere that thought he was dead. A mother and Father that had mourned the loss of a son. _Wait._ _I have a family. I have a family mourning the loss of me. _She couldn't look at herself in the mirror. _At least I had a family. What about Nine? _She sighed, pushing her hair back out of her face. She moved, avoiding looking in the mirror to stand in the doorway. Aaron was sat at the desk creating the fake passports that they needed. Nine was sat one of the beds, reading a book. She had thrown some of her belongings into a bag, one of these items was this book. Marta could see some other books peaking out from the bag.

They stayed this was for a while. Aaron concentrating on his work, Nine reading and Marta stood in the bathroom doorway. She watched the two, a father and the daughter he didn't even know existed un till very recently. Every now and again one would look at the other for a few seconds, noticing something new. She could see questions swirling in Nine's head that she wanted to ask, and she wanted nothing more than to give them a little time to talk without her there.

"I need some air." Marta said, moving across the room. Nine looked up from her book, placing a book mark at the page. Aaron put down what he was doing.

"It's not a good idea Marta." She gave him a glare that he knew wasn't very compromising. "Don't wander off." Marta unbolted the door and stepped outside of the door.

Nine got up off the bed, walking over to the table. Aaron had stopped working, staring blankly for a moment.

"What's it like? In the army?" She asked looking at the stuff strewn all over the desk. Aaron looked up at her, lacing his fingers together.

"You have all these questions to choose from. About my family before. About your family, and you're asking about the army?" He was studying her agin, the colours in her eyes that stood out from her hair.

"I didn't want to ask anything too... Personal?" She leant her head to the side a little as she thought. Aaron smiled.

"The army was what my... Our, family do. My older brother got in the army no trouble. My Dad was in the army. I only got in the army because they lied about my intelligence point score. That lead to the chems. How did you like England?" He turned back to the work slightly. It wasn't that he didn't want to hear what she had to say, but he had to get this done.

"I didn't really know I was in England. I didn't leave the lab un-till I was 8."

"How did the rest of the lab get... Shut down?" Aaron looked up at her.

"The lab was on the ground floor. We had a basement with a couple of rooms for examinations like they have here in America. Just in case an outcome agent appeared in England and need an examination urgently. One of the rooms was mine. I stayed down there. They kept the door locked most of the time, but I was allowed to sit up in the lab and look out of the windows. I liked the trees. The flowers. We had one way glass, I could see out but no one could see in. It was a system that worked." She stopped thinking, Aaron could only wonder if she had fond memories of being there. "One morning I was down in my room, when the alarms started sounding. There was gunfire and screaming. I tried to open the door, but they'd locked it from the outside. I hid in the cupboard they told me to hide in, should a situation arise. The door got opened after a while. The agents looked in the room but not very carefully. Why should they? It looked like the other room. No reason to think otherwise. I waited there. A few days later a scientist arrived. She said the right things, the code I'd been taught in French, and I left with her."

The door opened and Marta sidled in slamming the door. She hadn't wanted to go back in yet, but there were too many people walking about. Nine smiled a little, returning to her spot on the bed. Marta perched on the edge of the other bed. Aaron returned to the work he was doing. It had only been a few minutes when Marta's eyes began to droop. She didn't even think about it when she lay back on the bed, letting herself fall asleep despite of the circumstances.

Her eyes cracked open a little. The light was still dim in the room, the little digital clock numbers said it was nearly 1AM. Nine had moved off the bed, sitting on the floor to read her book. Marta smiled a sleepy smile. Nine had drifted off to sleep on the floor, Aaron was knelt next to her. He gently took the book form her hands putting the bookmark on the page she had been holding. He had no idea what he was doing, she could sleep on the plane they were boarding in a few hours but he couldn't leave her on the floor. He put the book down on the floor, picking the girl up off the floor. He lay her gently on the bed, looking at her for a minute. He looked at the clock. _Not long._ He looked at Marta. She scrunched her eyes closed quickly, opening them again after what she decided was long enough. Aaron was back at the table, Nine was sleeping on the bed. She sat up, she couldn't lay there with her eyes closed forever. She rubbed her eyes a little. If Aaron had noticed he didn't let her know.

"Come on." Aaron said gently shaking Nine's shoulder. Marta had offered but he felt the need to wake her himself. She opened her eyes sleepily at him. "Time to wake up. We board in an hour and we still need to get to the airport." She nodded at him, swinging her legs off the bed and entering the bathroom. She was used to being woken and having to get up immediately, but she still threw cold water in her face. Her hair was all over the place from leaning on the edge of the bed to read. She re-parted her hair on the left hand side, brushing it out with her fingers. It started to flatten out, much to her surprise.

She entered the main room again. Marta was sat on the edge of one of the beds, looking at a passport. Aaron looked up at her. He handed her a passport. She flicked to the back of the passport, 'Jenny Brundage' it read.

"Your name is Jenny Brundage. You are travelling with Karl D. Brundage, your father. Your going to the Philippines because he is, you understand?" She nodded. "You stick with me. Were going to travel in a separate taxi to Marta. We don't know her until we get to the Philippines." She nodded. "Whats your name?" He asked her.

"Jenny Brundage."

"Your fathers name?"

"Karl Brundage." He nodded, already having gone through this procedure with Marta. "Okay then." He looked at what she was wearing. "Plain, smartish clothes." He nodded to her going to the bathroom.

When he returned he was dressed in a smart jacket and trousers with a smart shirt, minus the tie. Nine had changed into her best blue jeans that she never wore, with a plain U neck t-shirt. She had a black cardigan thrown on as well. Marta rang for a cab, sliding the phone into her pocket ready to receive instructions from Aaron in the airport. She nodded to them at the door.

"See you on the plane." She said, leaving curtly. Nine stood quietly, as Aaron went around the room for the third time checking he had everything. He stooped down, picking up the book he had put on the floor the night before. He handed it to Nine.

"It's a good book." He said as she took it from him. She slid it into the backpack Aaron had given her, pulling the bag onto her back.

They called a different taxi company to Marta, waiting ten minutes and hoping she was gone already. This was confirmed outside as she was no-where to be seen. He pulled out a phone dialling the only number.

"Okay?" He asked, waiting a second, nodding and hanging up. Nine looked at him. He had lots of tales of the places and missions he had been on, she wanted him to tell her about them.

"Nice touch." She said as the taxi pulled up. He looked at her for a moment, opening the taxi door for her. "Jenny" She said simply, sliding in the taxi.


	3. The Flight

They had been standing in line for about half an hour. They could see Marta in the line next to them going through the booth next to theres. She reached the desk before them, handing over her passport. Aaron watched, her calmly without looking like he was watching her. Nine stood beside him, one headphone in her left ear the other hanging down with the drawstrings of her hoodie. She had a leather jacket over the hoodie layering them up over her faded blue jeans. She fitted in the look of the daughter of a man making a substantial amount of money, the expensive leather jacket, an IPod touch, the boots, they made the look. She had taken off the cardigan and put on the jacket hoodie ensemble as they entered the airport changing the look as she pleased. Aaron was still in his smart suit without a tie, the look suited him she thought. There wasn't much music on the IPod, but she made do keeping up the facade as Aaron had instructed, pretending to like what was playing as she watched in anticipation as Marta passed through the checkpoint.

Nine stood at the desk, Aaron stood beside her. The security guard behind the desk looked at the passport and then at her.

"Where you headed?" He asked idly, he asked pretty much every passenger the same question, and every time he didn't care.

"Manila" She said, running through the fact her name was Jenny for the thousandth time. He handed her the passport back with a forced half smile, muttering "Have a grate flight" as she passed through.

Aaron passed through behind her without a problem. She took her headphone out, turing the music off as they took a seat in a Cafe next to the window. She had a tea in her hand leaning back in the chair with her book open in front of her. Aaron sipped a coffee, taking out a phone. He dialled a number for Marta's phone, quietly telling her what to do.

"Where are you?" Marta asked picking up the phone.

"Right behind you. Don't turn around." Aaron instructed. Nine looked up at him, turning a page.

"Your going to stay right here until it's time to board, okay? You're doing great. You see that corridor on your right? You're gonna want to find somebody who's walking that way and just tag along." Marta nodded a little to herself. "Keep moving, keep your head down, and I'll see you on the plane." He hung up, nodding to Nine. They stood up,

"Aaron?" Marta asked into the phone. She turned her head round to look at the spot where Aaron and Nine had been sitting just minutes ago. The table was empty apart from a lone coffee cup.

Aaron and Nine sat next to each other on the flight. After the brief panic of waiting for Marta to board the plane after they had taken their seats calmly. Nine fell asleep again, not that she was that tired but she could tell that sleeping was going to be scarce over the next few days. Aaron watched her for a while, taking in the smaller details of this young girl that is his daughter. He noted that her sleep was uneasy, as she mumbled every now and kept popping into his head. _How do I treat this girl? She's grown up. Not a child anymore._ He didn't feel awkward talking to her, the opposite, while they had waited to board the plane he had done some work on passes they needed he had talked to her properly. She had told him about her life, _not that she had much to tell me._ He had told her about parts of his life, omitting certain parts. He found it easy to talk to her for some reason, he found himself having to stop talking in order to not give to much away.

The flight passed with ease, not experiencing to much turbulence. Nine woke from an uneasy sleep due to Aaron shaking her shoulder slightly with a concerned look on his face. She had smiled at him once the groggy haze had passed, telling him it was nothing and he shouldn't worry. He didn't look convinced, but dropped the subject all the same. He didn't want to push things while they were flying and while he was trying to conserve any brains he had left from the small amount of chems he had taken while rationing them.

They landed in Manilla, retrieving their bags and meeting up with Marta outside of the airport. They arrived at the factory late at night, gaining entrance after persuading the guards.

"Sorry, we can't let the child in." They stopped Nine at the gates.

"Child? Oh, this is my Daughter, Jenny." He swept his arm around, gesturing to her. "We have the appropriate pass for her." He showed the pass hanging around her neck. The guard looked at it suspiciously.

"Make sure she doesn't wander off." He looked at Nine. "Don't touch anything." He said, glaring at her. She smiled sweetly, following after Aaron and Marta into the factory with a slight skip.

She sat beside Aaron, watching him for the first signs of viraling off. The sweating would begin first, before he started to pass out. She knew because she had gone through it so many times before. Marta was a few rooms over, checking on a microscope some blood samples she had taken from Nine after they had arrived. Every now and again a quiet 'wow' would be heard, or a 'how has... never' would echo through the rooms.

"How did you survive this? They started viraling you off when you were 6 or something." He looked at her. She smiled.

"It nearly did kill me the first few times." She grinned to herself. "It was the scariest thing in the world." The grin disappeared. "It never got any less scary." They looked at each other for a minute, neither one looking away. Those few moments spoke more words than could have been said. She had allowed him to know that this process scared her. "I never thought I would have to think about it agin." She looked at the wall just passed Aaron's head, not wanting the eye contact for a minute.

"Are you scared now?" Aaron asked, not sure about his want for the answer. She looked back at him, meeting his eyes again.

"Yes. I think it scares me even more, seeing as it's you. And you've only gone through this once."

"Well, you've got the experience to get me through." He smiled at her, but Nine stood up turning her back on him. She gently punched the wall, more of a frustrated tap.

"It's different." She rested her head against the wall, turning around suddenly. "I don't know how to deal with someone else viraling off. I can control the process in my own body, but this is you! Its different." She sighed, walking to the door as three guards walked into the lab.


	4. The chase

**Note-this is kinda short. I really wanted to get the last of the film done before I started going any way I wanted to with the story so I left this one kinda shorter than I would usually would have. **

Her mind was racing. She had taken down two of the guards, Aaron taking down the other two. Marta and her had quickly put things in bags and they had run. They entered the main factory, the workers all dressed in sterile clothing provided for them. Aaron had fired a few rounds from his gun into some of the main power generators causing absolute chaos that allowed them to escape without being stopped. Aaron had taken a watch from a floor man whom he had helped find a way to unconsciousness. Aaron was still in charge here, he had control. What if the viral went wrong? She couldn't protect Marta like he could.

They had found a small room they could stay in while the side effects of viraling wore off. Marta stood up abruptly, looking down on the sleeping Aaron.

"He needs medicine. This" She waved her hand slightly at him "can't be right." She shook her head.

"Paracetamol. It's best for this." Nine looked up at her.

"Just paracetamol?" Marta asked, she'd had something stronger in mind. Nine nodded causing her short hair to sway.

"Paracetamol will ease the pain and reduce the amount of sweat meaning you can regain some level of consciousness quicker. It's a pain in the butt to administer though." Marta thought there was a pun there, but Nine was right. "The tablet has to be crushed and mixed with water, reducing the dosage, blah blah we'll work it out when you get back." She looked back down at her book. Marta was slightly taken aback. She looked back at Aaron once more before she left the room, hoping he would be okay.

Nine looked up as Marta left, wiping tears from her eyes that she had't wanted Marta to see, but the tears kept on falling. She took a deep breath, realising this was about more than just her. She was now all Marta had while Aaron was in the state he was in. She sighed, wiping the last tears away. She shut her book with a slap, placing it in her back pack. She leant her head against the wall, allowing herself to sleep.

Nine woke up to hear a lot of movement. Many feet, moving in units, carrying guns. They were much closer than she would have liked.

"Damn it!" She said angrily standing up quickly. She shook Aarons shoulder leaning over him. "Time to go." He sat up, slightly groggy. He was pulling on his shirt when they both heard Marta shouting from outside.

"AARON RUN" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Nine pulled her backpack on her shoulders quickly as Aaron grabbed his jacket.

"How do you feel?" She asked turning to him. She placed a hand on his forehead. He nodded.

"Fine. Good. Good enough." He smiled weakly at her.

"Out this way." She said, swinging open a small door. "I hope Marta's a fast enough runner." She said as she jumped over to another roof.

A lot of things happened in a very short space of time. Nine and Aaron ran across rooftops, intercepting Marta right at the crucial moment. They stole two motor bikes leading to a chase between them, the police and a man none of them recognised but they knew was not a police officer.

"We have to reach the water!" Aaron had called to Nine who was weaving along through the traffic beside them. She nodded, taking the mysterious stranger out by forcing him to drive into a post. Aaron pulled the bike into a skid when he saw a piece of debris hitting the front wheel of Nines bike. They had hardly stopped when he was up again, running back to her.

Nine was curled up into a tiny ball. From what Aaron could see it was all superficial, nothing that should be causing her this much pain.

"Nine?" He whispered to her, stroking her forehead. "Nine, I need you to uncurl your self." He said quietly. She whimpered slightly, shaking her head. He heard Marta talking behind them at the other end of the concrete warehouse they were in.

"Can you help us?" She was asking. "Please?" Aaron looked over his shoulder, there was a man stood staring at them, beside him was a little boy.

"Marta." He called to her. She turned around. From his pocket he produced a gold watch he had procured from the man at the labs earlier that day. He tossed it across the space to her. She looked down at it, taking a few minutes to realise why he had thrown it to her. Aaron looked down again at Nine. She was still curled up in this little ball, but she was slowly uncurling. After a few moments he realised there was blood pooling around her from a would on her abdomen.

She was laying on a boat when she woke up. The sun burned her retinas, blinding her momentarily. She blinked hard a few times, a dull pain in her abdomen. She lifted a hand up to shield herself from the sun. She realised she was lying in what seemed to her to be some kind of hammock, close to a table. Arron was sat looking at a map jotting something down every few moments. Marta appeared looking quite at home on the boat.

"Are we lost?" She asked after looking down at the map for a few moments.

"No." Aaron said, looking up at her. "Just looking at our options." Marta smiled.

"I was hoping we were lost." Nine grinned to herself from her little vantage point. The hammock swayed with the boat slightly as she drifted back to sleep.


End file.
